Land Use & Open Space Conservation

China's environmental situation is frequently scrutinized both within China and across the world. In the second half of a two-part podcast Angel Hsu, a China expert completing her PhD this May at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, discusses urbanization in China and India and China's push to develop sustainable ecocities. Listen to the podcast

Every day, San Franciscans pay the price of an underfunded transportation system. We have all experienced painfully overcrowded bus rides ... or, worse yet, the bus that never shows up. Now, Muni is reducing service during Christmas week, as it is faced with a $7 million deficit this fiscal year.

Amy Clipp gave a webinar for us that offered ideas for bridging the gap between science and policy, with a particular focus on helping scientists apply their work in complex, political environments. Her stories are based on lessons learned advising the State of Louisiana on its 2012 Coastal Master Plan.

As an associate conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Sarah Reed studies conservation development as a way to develop property by clustering homes and protecting or restoring ecological resources.

It all started more than five years ago, when Tershy and his wife, Erika Zavaleta, were living in a different house on the Bethany Curve Greenbelt on the Westside. They knew they wanted to remodel their home, but they kept running into the same roadblock. “What we really wanted to do was turn our house, which was facing the street, around 180 degrees so it faced the park, but it seemed impossible,” explains Tershy. Luckily fate stepped in, and another lot on the park went up for sale.

Editor's Note: The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation helped fund Sarah's early work on Conservation Development with the Wildlife Conservation Society through a Leadership Grant.

"It's an evolution, not a revolution," said Stuart Cohen, head of TransForm, a transportation and land-use coalition that supports the plan. "What's stronger than ever is how we're spending our (transportation) money, and where growth is happening."